No green left

Hundreds of thousands of trees have been cut on one pretext or another. Thousands of acres of forest land have fallen prey to the insatiable greed of the powerful land mafia in this country with the connivance of state institutions and paid or elected public office holders, whose job it was to prevent such criminal activity. It seems nobody is bothered by the devastating consequences of this criminal negligence against the health of millions of citizens. In a country where the state has absolved itself of its constitutional obligation to provide basic health, education and welfare, the least that was expected was not to add to their woes through pollution.

Thousands of acres of green agriculture land including amenity plots and forest land has been illegally occupied by land developers in nexus with corrupt public office-holders. While population is increasing, fertile green land is being taken over, contributing to a decrease in agriculture produce. As if this were not enough vehicles, both private and official, emitting poisonous black smoke continue to contaminate the air, courtesy corrupt motor vehicle inspectors. Tractor trolleys are another factor as are rickshaws.

Gull Zaman

Peshawar